2010: The Hurling Year in Review Part One

As the snow and freezing weather give way to wind and rain this Christmas, balmy summer Sundays and verdant playing fields may not be the most forthcoming memories.

The summer of 2010, however, will always evoke the most glorious images for hurling afficianados, who were treated to a vintage Championship season.

A Year to remember

It was the year Tipperary ended a nine-year wait for an All-Ireland title thanks to three Lar Corbett goals. Liam Sheedy delivered Liam MacCarthy and stepped aside as Tipp manager. It was the year Kilkenny's 21-game, four-year Championship run finally came to an end. It was the year of the cruciate injury. It was the year of miraculous recoveries and even more dramatic falls.

It was the year 'Big Dan' filched another goal against the Rebels and then exited the building. It was the year Offaly rolled back the years and played out a two-game epic with Galway. It was the year Galway threatened, and ultimately failed, to deliver. It was the year Antrim re-emerged as a hurling force...? It was the end of an era on Leeside, as Seán Óg hung up his hurl.

It was some year.

Where would one possibly start to review a year like the one we have just had? Tipperary's All-Ireland win over Kilkenny seems like the logical point, but we will get to that.

The Allianz Hurling League

Galway's re-emergence as a hurling force in the 1970s and '80s was sparked by a National League win in 1975. Out west, they were desperate for a sign, a bellwether success that would even hint that John McIntyre's men could bring back the glory days to Galway hurling. It came with a 2-22 to 1-17 Allianz National League final win over Cork on May 3.

Galway had strolled into the final with six wins from seven games, including a dramatic, late success over All-Ireland champions Kilkenny; Cork were similarly impressive, their only defeat coming in a dead rubber game against Galway two weeks before the final.

On Bank Holiday Monday in Thurles, Cork and Galway served up a cracking final. McIntyre's Tribesmen dominated. Damien Hayes gave a compelling performance at wing-forward. His early goal unsettled Cork and their wing-back, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, who got the shepherd's crook after just 49 minutes. Joe Canning, as is his wont, chipped in with 1-5. They won by eight points, but Galway had done more than that: they had announced themselves as contenders for the upcoming Championship.

Cork, on the other hand, were feted far less in the media. Questions were asked about their defence, their famed half-back line and the strength on depth of Denis Walsh's panel.

In the Division 2 final, Wexford booked their place in the top tier for 2011 with a 1-16 to 2-9 defeat of Ger O'Loughlin's Clare. Limerick, who fielded a shadow panel for most of the year following a dispute between the 2009 panel and manager Justin McCarthy, were relegated to Division 2, a 6-30 to 2-11 defeat to Dublin in Round 7 confirming their relegation and compounding a miserable, winless campaign.

The Provincial Championships

The summer's Championship started with the Leinster GAA Hurling Championship meeting of Carlow and Laois at O'Moore Park, where Niall Rigney's men emerged with a 1-13 to 0-10 victory.

Perhaps the most anticipated game of the summer was the Munster GAA quarter-final clash between Cork and Tipperary - the third successive year the old rivals had met in the competition. Despite a mediocre league campaign, Tipp were seen by most as the team most likely to end Kilkenny's hegemony.

On a rainy day on Leeside, the Munster champions and beaten All-Ireland finalists the previous year were comprehensively dismantled by an Aisake Ó hAilpín-inspired Cork.

"They're back. After three years in Tipperary's shadow, Cork re-emerged as a hurling powerhouse with a stunning 3-15 to 0-14 destruction of the Munster champions at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday," the www.gaa.ie match report on the day read.

"Aisake Ó hAilpín had a hand in each of Cork's goals and scored their third after an outstanding game at full-forward for the Rebels. The giant Na Piarsaigh man tormented Tipperary full-back Pádraic Maher for the first 23 minutes, setting up two goals for his partner in a two-man inside forward line, Patrick Horgan, before he ended the game as a contest by hitting the back of the net with ten minutes left."

Tipperary wouldn't have to wait too long for redemption, while Cork's Championship journey didn't lead them exactly where they might have imagined.

Overshadowed that day was a brilliant performance by Antrim, who lost to Offaly by 3-16 to 2-26 after extra-time in a thrilling game at Parnell Park. Antrim would have their day in the sun later in the Championship while the prize for Offaly was a meeting with league champions Galway.

A Leinster Classic

In a game of the year contender, Offaly rolled back the years to lead by seven points at one stage in a first half in which they scored three goals. Galway hit back, Ger Farragher and Joe Canning finding the net before Offaly's Daniel Currams was sent off in the 47th minute. Offaly's brave challenge appeared to be over, but they somehow recovered and Shane Dooley, who finished with 1-7, salvaged a draw with a dramatic long-range point at the death.

"The least Offaly - and the magnificent Dooley - deserve is another day out after producing a performance that many thought was beyond them. It was a throwback to Offaly days of the past, when the men from the Faithful County frequently slugged it out with the best the province had to offer and often came out on top.

"Dooley's nerve jangling free, three minutes into injury time, may have levelled the game, but it felt like a winner for the Offaly supporters who have endured lean times of late. Dooley, the son of their manager and former star, Joe, struck 1-7 (1-1 from play) in yet another brilliant individual performance."

Earlier that day at Croke Park, Kilkenny had ruthlessly destroyed Dublin by 19 points in a one-sided semi-final. Henry Shefflin broke the Championship scoring record. Kilkenny being Kilkenny, the remarkable feat barely got a mention.

The following Saturday, Offaly and Galway went at it again in Portlaoise. Epic is an overused term, but this encounter fitted that description. Early on, there were no signs of the drama to come as Galway led by 2-9 to 0-7 at the break. But Offaly recovered and goals from Ger Healion and Bergin again gave them the lead in the closing stages. Stoppage time points from Ger Farragher and Joe Canning, however, gave Galway a win by the narrowest margin and a place in the Leinster final against Kilkenny. It was a tough pill for Offaly to swallow, but Galway would be able to empathise with them later in the summer.

The Munster Final

Down south, Waterford moved into the Munster final by beating a young Clare side in Thurles, while Cork's passage to the decider was straightforward against a weakened Limerick team.

It wasn't one of the classics these sides have served up over the last 10 years, but Tony Browne's late goal ensured it will live in the memory - if only for the fact that it gave the sides another opportunity to write another chapter in the drama.

The replay, six days later in Thurles, was hardly a classic either, but it left us with one of the iconic moments of the summer. In what was surely the only Munster final ever played under lights, Dan Shanahan, a late substitute, flashed home an extra-time goal that gave the Déise their first Munster title since 2007. He beat his old nemesis, Dónal Óg Cusack, in the Cork goal and wheeled away, one finger pointed to the sky, in a celebration remarkably reminsicent of the one following his second goal against Cork in the 2007 All-Ireland quarter-final. It turned out to be 'Big Dan's' parting gift to the Waterford supporters, as he called time on his 13-year inter-county career at the end of the season after making little impression against Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final.

The Leinster final provided no such drama; Kilkenny did what they do best and beat Galway by 1-19 to 1-12. Kilkenny's winning margin was seven points, but the gulf in class between the two sides was alarming.

Stay with www.gaa.ie in the coming days for Part 2 of the Hurling Review of the Year.